The present invention relates to the field of devices and methods for repairing structures, notably aircraft structures.
The structure of an aircraft, and notably of a commercial airliner, may become damaged by incidents of various types, such as bird strike, hail or impact from other objects, and become indented, torn, scratched or suffer any other form of damage requiring repair. Repairs cover as many operations comprising reworking a nick in order to fill it, a crack in order to plug it, as operations comprising applying sealant to orifices made for fixings used for making repairs, as operations comprising repainting or protecting the reworked zones with coats of various materials, as any other types of operation. The term repair is therefore to be understood in the broadest sense, namely, to cover any operation or collection of operations that involve returning a component to a condition in which it is ready for use.
The present invention relates more particularly to repairs that require an application of heat. Heating makes it possible, for example, to polymerize a liner fixed by curing, to dry out a sealant, a coat of paint, a protective film, to accelerate any other form of drying, etc.
In the case, for example, of a heating operation leading to the polymerization of composite structures, recourse is habitually had to an autoclave. However, in the case of repairs made to a component on an airplane, it is necessary to dismantle the component and transport it to the autoclave and then refit it once the component has been repaired, making the repair operation lengthy and tricky, especially if the component is bulky or fragile.
Patent Application EP2881246 filed by Airbus Operations GmbH discloses one example of a repair of a component made of composite. As set out in the application, the repair method uses a chamber made up of two shells positioned on each side of a damaged panel. The closed chamber has an opening through which a hot gas is passed. Flanks are provided on each of the shells so that they can be held in place using magnets. The method allows the repair to be made directly on the airplane, avoiding the autoclave. However, if the component is large in size, installation and the fitting of the magnets prove difficult, and retention by magnetization cannot necessarily be reliably assured.
It is an object of the present invention to propose a repair device and method allowing the difficulty of setting the heating chamber in place to be overcome, particularly for large-sized damaged structures.